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Anime Debaser Film

Your Name

I finally watched Your Name (Kimi no Na wa), the biggest film in Japan last year, and I loved it. When the movie came out and was breaking box office records, I started looking into its director, Makoto Shinkai, and really enjoyed everything I watched. Just like the rest of his work, this movie is a visual treat, with the amazing colorscapes you tend to see in all of his movies, and environments that feel so familiar if you’ve spent time in Japan. It’s a great story too, and more complex than I was expecting — and I’m glad I never got spoiled on most of it before watching it.

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Anime Film Music Web

Daisuke Kashiwa

I really do need to make a point of highlighting every episode of Toco Toco TV here, because it truly is my favorite online video series. The episode before the latest (on Shinji Tsuchimochi) covered musician Daisuke Kashiwa, who has been composing the soundtracks for the animated films of Makoto Shinkai, whose latest film, Your Name, is now (or about to be) the top grossing film ever in Japan.

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Anime TV

Ani-Kuri 15

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I just watched a fantastic collection of animated shorts called Ani-Kuri 15. Produced for NHK back in 2007-2008, it’s comprised of 15 1-minute shorts each directed by some of the top names in the animation field, including Kon Satoshi (pictured), Mamoru Oshii, and Makoto Shinkai (in fact, it’s while searching for works by Shinkai that I came across this project). Just a fantastic collection, and incredibly imaginative.

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Debaser Uncategorized

Voices of a Distant Star

The last of Makoto Shinkai’s works I’ve watched so far is this 25-minute OVA, which tells an interesting story of two young lovers separated by a war in the galaxy, and how the light years of distance between them affects the way they can communicate. You can tell it’s an earlier work, as it doesn’t feel as comfortably edited as the other works I watched, but already you can see the telltale signs of color and hyper-real world building. I did find the character designs to be weak, and the scenes with mechs have unfortunately not aged very well, as they were done in CG (in 2002). Still very much worth watching though.

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Debaser Uncategorized

Dareka no Manazashi

After watching Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second film, I followed it up with this 6-minute short. Like with 5 Centimeters, it incorporates a hyper-real world, beautiful scenery and colors, all in a fun little near-future tale of a woman dealing with growing up and the relationship she maintains with her father. I recommend watching this as well.

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Debaser Uncategorized

5 Centimeters Per Second

As I wrote yesterday on my personal blog, I’ve just discovered Makoto Shinkai, and started my viewing of his works with this film, which is made up of three interlocking chapters. The story of young love didn’t really grab me, but what did grab me was the stunningly beautiful animated world we’re presented with, both in terms of its hyper-real portrayal (it’s a Japan you recognize as true) and its inspired use of color. Add to this an intriguing structure and edits, and it resulted in a film I loved taking in.

Categories
Anime Film

Makoto Shinkai

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I first heard the name Mokoto Shinkai the other day when my wife mentioned that his latest film, the animated Your Name (reviewed here by The Japan Times), had scored a huge box office opening since its release last week in Japan (grossing close to $40 million during its first 10 days). Not really knowing anything about him and his films, I did some digging, and decided to watch some of his work last night. I started with the film 5 Centimeters Per Second, which is made up of 3 slightly-interlocking chapters. The story of young love didn’t really grab me, but what did grab me was the stunningly beautiful animated world we’re presented with, both in terms of its hyper-real portrayal (it’s a Japan you recognize as true) and its inspired use of color. Add to this an intriguing structure and edits, and it resulted in a film I loved taking in. I then followed this up with a 6-minute short film he also directed, called Dareka no Manazashi, which I loved as well. I can’t wait to watch the rest of what he’s produced so far.